Cycling

Taking a longer road home – 30 Days of Biking: Day 1

/ Raj / Leave a comment

After what seemed like weeks of grey and wet, Manchester’s weather today ended up being perfect to kick off 30 Days of Biking:

My original plan for today to get up early and take a long route cycling into work. Unfortunately, I’m still not enjoying the switch to British Summer Time and when I looked out of the window this morning, the raindrops clinging to the balcony glass didn’t inspire me. It also meant that the route I’d had in my head involving part of a canal path might be slightly muddy.

Usually, my two mile commute from my flat in Ancoats to the office in Hulme takes less than 15 minutes – barely enough to break a sweat, now that I do it every day. That’s the most direct way: if I was more disciplined and woke up an hour earlier, I could easily make it a 10 mile daily morning ride, using mostly traffic-free routes.

So after a day spent mostly inside, tapping away at my computer while the sun blazed through the windows, I was pretty set on riding home on a longer route. And suddenly, it’s hurrah for BST: 6pm and it’s still plenty light.

Leaving the office, I headed south to along one of Manchester’s major bike routes – National Cycle Network (NCN) 6, which in Manchester is a pleasant mix of traffic free and residential streets. It seemed the good weather had brought out a lot of riders on a wide range of bikes, rather than just the hardcore who do it everyday. Kids on mountain bikes, a few Dutch style city bikes and, of course, the odd racer joined me on the ride through Alexandra Park down to the Manchester Cycleway.

The Manchester Cycleway is one of Manchester’s ‘hidden’ cycling gems. For most of its route, it’s made up of the glorious Fallowfield Loop, a disused railway that’s been reborn as off-road pedestrian and cycle route that stretches from Chorlton all the way to Gorton in east Manchester. It’s a joy to ride and I’ll definitely be covering it in a future blog post.

This evening, I only cycled a couple of miles along the ‘Floop’ if that, turning off after Sainsbury’s Fallowfield to take the quiet bike routes through Owens Park campus then up along Oxford Road’s cycle lanes and bus lanes to get back into town. The faster road made for a pleasant contrast as I took advantage of the full width of the bus lane to pick up speed (and happened to pick up a personal record doing so).

So, in all, a relaxed start to 30 Days of Biking but a positive one nonetheless. If I can hit 10 miles a day at least, then I’ll be finishing the month way up on my average, though I’m off to London this weekend and I don’t think I’ll be riding then.

For anyone interested, I’ve included the route below and you can check out my other rides from my Strava page.

Happy riding!

I’m taking part in 30 Days of Biking

/ Raj / 1 Comment

Last April, I began seeing tweets tagged with appear in my timeline. It turned out 30 Days of Biking is a campaign founded in Minneapolis that seeks to share and promote the joy of cycling. Now in its fifth year, #30daysofbiking has become an international month-long celebration of cycling culture wherever there are tweeters and riders.

Being a regular cyclist in Manchester, I joined in with a few tweets last year to share my daily riding experience. I didn’t keep it up too closely, though I did cycle most days as it’s how I get to work or to the shops.

This year though, I’m going to go one step further by pledging to cycle daily from 1 April. I’ll also be trying to write a related blog post, either of the ride, or maybe a review or advice: anything, really that helps me share why I genuinely love going out on my bike.

I’m doing this because I believe that cycling is an amazingly positive and liberating activity.

It requires very little fitness to get going, is generally considered low-impact on your body and can show benefits quickly.

And perhaps surprisingly, Manchester is a city that’s well suited to cycling: it’s generally flat (at least in central and south Manchester), has access to some particularly stunning bike routes and also has a number of groups that are actively passionate about getting people riding. 

You don’t need a fancy bike either. I love to geek out about bike frames, components and accessories, but the truth is, almost any old bike will do. Just make sure it’s roadworthy – your local bike shop can help you with that.

Sounds good? Want to read more? Check out 30 reasons to take up cycling. And once you’ve done that, go and rummage around your garage, dig out that dusty old two-wheeler and take it for a spin.

For more advice on getting cycling for fitness, check out the NHS choices website.

Me and @samscam after completing the Manchester to Blackpool ride

Me and @samscam after completing the Manchester – Blackpool ride for the first time

Good coffee, good ride: Northern Coffee Tour 2011

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Coffee and cycling go hand-in-hand. In our opinion, you can’t beat a cup of joe in the morning for that kick you need before getting on your bike to ride to work or to play. And the north is home to some of the finest independent coffee shops in the UK, many of which are cycle-friendly.

And through chatting with our friends and fellow bike-lovers North Tea Power on Twitter, we’ve found out about an event happening this weekend that combines these two things. It’s the Northern Coffee Tour 2011 and it’s happening this Saturday 17 September, taking in four coffee shops across three cities on two wheels in one day.

Northern Coffee Tour 2011 poster

Setting off at an eye-wateringly early 8 am from Leeds’s Laynes Espresso, caffeinated riders will pedal across the Pennines to Manchester where they’ll stop first at North Tea Power in the Northern Quarter before continuing to Coffee Fix in Gatley. Travelling (probably) along the ship canal and aside the Mersey, the final caffeine injection will be at Liverpool’s Bold Street Coffee.

The 140 kilometre (86 mile) epic ride is organised by the Bold Street Bicycle Club (Facebook) and open to all. Laynes are also laying on eggs on toast for those starting from Leeds and no doubt the other participating coffee shops will welcome riders in their own unique way.

Unfortunately, we’re not around this weekend as we’re decamping to Salford for BarCamp MediaCityUK. However, there are around 30 people confirmed on the Facebook event, so it should be a good run.

Get involved and sign-up for the whole ride, or turn up for one of the intermediate legs by checking out the route map. And if you can’t get along, you can follow all the action on Twitter by searching for #northerncoffeetour.

Upcoming Manchester rides

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Mr R.J. Tate

There’s always some cycling action going on in Manchester. Here’s a couple of upcoming organised rides that might be of interest:

First up, the Chorlton Wanderers are keeping up their year-round schedule with a 45 mile circular ride from Chorlton to Peover Heath on 11 September. The route is mostly flat and on road, but there will be “short stretches of tracks and canal banks” and will include the customary stop for lunch at the Dog Inn.

I rode with the Wanderers for the first time last month and found them to be a hugely friendly bunch with experienced ride organisers that took care to look after all riders, including me when I had an incident with a wasp! Drop them a line via their website to let them know you’re coming along and to be added to their mailing list.

Also, I Bike MCR are now running regular monthly road rides and their second ride is coming up on 25 September. As yet, the destination is unannounced but keep an eye on their website and their Facebook event for more details.

I Bike MCR are “a grassroots cycling community in Manchester” and, amongst other things, they co-ordinate Critical Mass, the monthly Friday evening cycle ride through the centre of Manchester. More about this months Critical Mass in another post…

These are just a couple of the rides coming up. Are you running any rides or have you heard of stuff coming up that we should feature? Get in touch and drop a comment below.